Wouldn’t B2B sales and marketing be a whole lot easier if you just knew who was looking to buy your product? It’s a question asked by many organizations — and in fact, it’s the question that sparked the creation of the 6sense platform.
Naturally, the answer is yes, but how?
The solution: Account-Based Marketing, or ABM.
Some organizations are hesitant, however, to embrace ABM, and it’s easy to understand why: It can be resource-intensive and narrows a revenue team’s efforts on a limited number of high-value accounts. This leads many organizations to believe that ABM is simply not sustainable. Fortunately, that’s not the case.
In a recent webinar hosted by Adam Kaiser, VP of Growth Marketing at 6sense, marketing leaders from BILL, Talmage Egan (Director of Demand Generation) and Tucker Stoffers (Sr. Director of Growth Marketing), shared ways to effectively scaling ABM strategies.
You can watch the webinar here, or read a recap below.
What if My Org Isn’t a ‘Good Fit’ for ABM?
Talmage and Tucker discussed their unique journey to implementing an ABM strategy.
At first glance, the duo thought ABM wasn’t a good fit for BILL due to their company’s quick sales cycle and broad market approach. (ABM has a reputation for being best suited to revenue orgs that have high-value customer bases, complex sales processes, and targetable markets.)
“We’re looking for $30 million businesses to come onto BILL,” Tucker explained. “It’s the antithesis of everything that seems like it’s going to be good for ABM.”
However, BILL swiftly adapted and overcame these challenges by tailoring their strategies to meet the needs of a massive and varied market.
They applied ABM tactics such as personalization, targeting small and midsize businesses with customized messaging that shows prospects that BILL really knows their business. The efforts at personalization quickly became a differentiator in the market.
“Nobody’s targeting them with these methods, and we can do this fast,” Tucker said.
High-Touch Personalization at Scale
How did BILL manage to reach out to so many prospective customers with personalized content and keep it sustainable and scalable? Tucker explained how BILL achieved this with automation at scale, or leveraging streamlined data to trigger timely marketing actions.
Using 6sense’s ABM platform, BILL’s sales reps are notified when prospective accounts engage with the brand in ways BILL believes indicates clear interest in their solution, such as:
- Concerted website visits and on-site activity
- When an account becomes a 6sense qualified account (similar to a sales-qualified lead)
- Or another behavior that indicates that a prospect is in-market to buy
Armed with this timely information, reps engage those accounts during this short buying window.
This use of automated tools delivers efficiency without sacrificing the personal touch crucial for high-value engagements.
Pro Tips for Scaling ABM
Talmage and Tucker shared these important tips your organization can follow when rolling out your ABM strategy:
Know Your ICP
Understanding your Ideal Customer Profile is critical for:
- Targeting precision
- Resource optimization
- Content and messaging relevance
- Enhancing predictive models
Use a Multi-Channel Approach
Engaging accounts across various platforms increases the chances of conversion, especially when trying to reach and engage with a vast market.
A multi-channel approach increases the visibility of your marketing messages and ensures they reach your target audience wherever they may be active. Different platforms provide different ways to interact with content, and each platform has unique strengths that can be leveraged in an ABM strategy.
Sales Buy-in is Essential for ABM Success
A brilliant ABM strategy won’t work without a strong partnership between marketing and sales. As Tucker explained, “Marketing is not closing any deals. Marketing is not calling and following up on any of these things. So, we have to be bought in from the very beginning.”
This alignment across the revenue team is crucial, which boils down to an important cultural element highlighted by Tucker: “The key to alignment on everything is trust.”
Ready to Learn More?
If you’d like to see for yourself how 6sense can help your organization roll out an ABM strategy at scale, book a demo today.
